Ponyo is a 13.8m ketch built in Denmark in the 80s and we found her (at that time she was still called Thor) in Fethiye, Turkey – badly neglected. Despite of being a deck salon yacht she is very seaworthy. After Ric sacrificed the first part of his sabbatical in Turkey refitting her, the family spent last summer on Ponyo, getting to know her, taking her out to play in the waves and slowly reviving her. This summer (2016) we continued the refit with the dedication of our boat wizard Giorgos who spent months to get the engine back into shape (unfortunately to no avail as we just found out. Ponyo’s old Arona is being replaced by a brand-new Yanmar as we speak). Ponyo also got a brand new anchor winch, gas stove and we revived the fridge. There are still a lot of projects that will be taken on on the way.

The name Ponyo is the title of a Hayao Miyazaki movie about a fish girl who wants to see the world. All four of us are huge Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fans and Japan has been one of the aspired destinations from the very beginning when buying a boat was still a pie in the sky.

Ponyo – our 13.8m Ketch

Welcome to Boatnotes!

We are a German patchwork family of four with three boys (14, 17 and 40something) and one adult. Sort of.

Since August 2016 we have been living on our boat and cruising full time.
The dream is to sail to Japan but there is much to learn and we are taking it step by step!
Follow our adventures and the process of shifting land life to boat life.
We are going to be filming and documenting our adventures as we go along!